Indian restaurants that supported Brexit angry over betrayal on Tier 2 UK visas

The Brexit leave campaigners have betrayed the British curry houses over the issue of Tier 2 UK visas, as claimed by the latter.

With approximately 4 billion pounds sale every year, the UK curry industry is a crucial sector for the economy of the UK. The stakeholders of this sector had supported the Brexit leave campaign on the assurance that more Tier 2 visas would be issued to immigrants from India and Bangladesh by curbing the inflow of immigrants from the European Union.

Several curry houses across Britain are now threatened with closure due to the scarcity of chefs, as quoted by Work Permit. It is cumbersome to obtain a Tier 2 visa and equally arduous for the curry houses to secure the sponsorship licenses for Tier 2 visas, as quoted by the Work Permit.

As per the current immigration laws, the curry firm employers have to spend at least 29, 570 pounds every year to hire a chef through the Tier 2 visa in the UK. Pasha Khandaker, the President of the Bangladesh Caterers Association has expressed his severe displeasure regarding the policy of the UK government to curb immigration and disregarding the points-based immigration system.

He has said that the association had strongly promoted the ‘leave campaign’ during the Brexit vote and now they are severely dissatisfied. The leave campaigners had assured that the points-based system would be introduced for the Tier 2 visas after the Brexit vote and this is now out rightly rejected by the UK government.

It is quite difficult for the chefs in South Asia to arrive in the UK through the Tier 2 visas. Many of the curry restaurants in the UK find that the salary rates under the Tier 2 visas are very high and as a result cannot afford them.

The statistics of the curry industry reveals that around 90% of the Indian curry restaurants are owned by the natives of Bangladesh. It appears that the citizens of the UK and majority of the Indians do not wish to get employed in the Indian curry restaurants.

Immediate reforms to the existing Tier 2 visas in the UK are the need of the hour for the curry industry to survive. The curry sector has now realized that politicians are not trustworthy.

The current anti-immigrant ambiance in the UK will make it difficult for the stakeholders in the curry sector to convince the Government of UK to hike the immigration approvals for Indians or Bangladeshis. They will thus be unable to fill the vacant chef positions in their restaurants and it now appears that the current trend of shutting down in the curry industry will continue for some time.

Theresa May has categorically ruled out to launch the points based system on par with Australia. The leaders of the left camp during the Brexit vote had promoted the idea of an Australian-based points system that included Priti Patel, Michael Gove, and Boris Johnson.

Nevertheless, post-Brexit Theresa May declared that no such system would be launched in the UK. Mr. Khandaker has said that it is very frustrating that the important leaders of the ruling party in Britain have refused to honor their words.

He said that the chef reason for which his association supported the Brexit campaign was to secure assistance for hiring people from India and Bangladesh as chefs for the curry restaurants. The reason is that natives in Britain largely refrain from working in the curry sector due to the late hours of work in the industry.

The official leave campaign publicity material included leaflets distributed to the Islamic communities that claimed that Brexit would result in eviction of European immigrants from the eastern region. This would facilitate Britain to accept more immigrants from the Commonwealth nations.

The current international development secretary and avid campaigner of the Brexit campaign Priti Patel had said that it was absurd that the curry houses were treated in an inferior manner and were meted out a second class visa regime when compared with the chefs from the European Union.